Overview
| Up-to-date | updated for the 4/15/2025 patch |
|---|---|
| Template Code | [&DQcBHQoZQjojDyMP3RqPAY8B3RppAWkB7RIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADLwAxAFoAAA==] |
| Conditions |
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| Role |
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| Synergy | average |
|---|---|
| DPS | high |
| Independence | average |
| Acquiring basics | average |
| Achieving mastery | difficult |
Power Virtuoso is currently the strongest power build for Mesmer in fractals. It can bring a decent amount of CC while offering good burst damage and great sustained DPS while being able to adapt to different groups and situations by bringing tons of extra utility such as Stability, Stealth, reflects, pulls or portals from the Mesmer toolkit. You will also naturally provide boon removal through and as well as potentially , which makes the specialization particularly useful in unorganized pug compositions. At an organized level, it falls behind soulbeast and dragonhunter particulaly because Power Virtuoso has no ability to precast traps before starting a boss.
As a class, Mesmer provides an optimal skipping toolset for T4 fractals which should be utilized. This build profits from sigils like as well as slaying potions such as .
Equipment
For fractals, due to Exposed, it is worth adjusting the build to make use of . An important advantage of having an impact sigil setup is also that it allows for easy sigil swapping. This is relevant because on Dark AI and on Siax as well as Ensolyss provide even better damage boosts. works on Eparch. also works on several strike missions. Furthermore, can be used on some raid encounters and in open world. Hence, if you do not own a build already, across all content, the impact sigil setup will provide you higher damage and greater flexibility. It is smarter to also play the impact build in raids than the accuracy build in fractals. Ideally, you own both setups.
Check the gear optimizer for more gear variants!
Note: This setup assumes you use stat infusions and standard utility. If you do not use stat infusions, is a damage increase. Additionally, the optimal gear for power virtuoso will change depending on different combinations of , , , and ! The resulting difference is negligibly small though. Two impact sigil gear sets are mainly provided because the eagle setup is straightforward to gear with berserker armor while the potion setup keeps deadeye runes like the optimal version without stat-infusions. Both setups use 4 precise infusions. Choose whatever is more convenient or explore more setups in the gear optimizer.
Weapon Choices
After the greatsword buffs in April 2025, the default weapon setup is Spear + Greatsword in conjunction with as it offers the highest burst in short phases as well as great sustained damage. The old setup using Dagger/Sword + Spear should still be playable, as well, especially in longer fights where it is unclear which build lines up best with cooldowns. If you do not own the necessary expansions, Greatsword + Dagger / Sword is the original setup. Before getting into combat, you can freely swap to any weapon to precast additional AoE skills or phantasms. In T4 fractals, an offhand focus is often useful for pulls.
- Berserker
- Berserker
- Berserker
- Berserker
Build
Traits
Domination
Dueling
Virtuoso
Situational Traits
| Take this trait if you want to help strip boons. | |
| Take this trait if you are not playing with Greatsword. |
Illusions
You can use this Illusions-traitline variant instead of the Domination-traitline when you are facing Quickness and Might uptime issues. It allows you to be more self-sufficient in bad groups. The illusions variant is also optimal when soloing fractals or in open world.
Before flaming your group for boons or swapping traitlines, you should make sure that quickness and might are properly stacked at the mistlock singularity by using a heal chronomancer gearset with high boon duration and precasting rifle skills (, ), shield skill and .
Extra Weapons and Food
- Focus offers your group a very efficient pull with in T4 fractals.
- Dagger mainhand can be used to precast before swapping to a template with greatsword and spear or in long fights. It also allows to slot in focus.
- Sword offers an evade, mobility and additional boonstrip when used as mainhand weapon. It is the highest damage offhand weapon and has a block.
- Always run Spear.
- Use sigil swapping where appropriate to gain additional damage.
- Use for fights with adds for an additional damage boost.
- Use in the entire Nightmare Fractal and on Arkk for an additional damage boost.
Situational Skills
Swap out before any other skill. If you cannot use
to precast or you need additional might from mantra of pain, you can consider swapping out rain of swords instead. An example boss for this scenario is Dark AI.
| A nice source of party-wide Stability. | |
| For prestacking blades before the fight | |
| Great for Artsariiv to reflect Taw Shot. Exceptionally great on Dark AI when used to reflect her laser beams during dashes. | |
| Can be used instead of if no CC is needed. | |
| Can be used instead of if the phantasm would otherwise be too slow for the fight. It is also a good CC skill for bosses like Mama or Artsariiv. |
CC Skills
| 50 damage (per Blade) | |
| 200 damage | |
| 150 damage | |
| 600 damage | |
| 150 damage | |
| 300 damage | |
| 200 damage | |
| Slow | 50 damage per second |
Rotation / Skill usage
Golem rotations out of the raid builds are generally suboptimal in fractals due to Exposed and phases being much shorter compared to raids. The raid rotations are optimized for sustained DPS while in fractals a player needs the ability to adapt a rotation to the amount of time a group needs to finish a phase.
It's important to note that phantasms do not benefit from most modifiers unless it is stated to be the case.
They do however benefit from Exposed.
Skill Priority
To play Power Virtuoso in fractals, you need to adapt your gameplay on the fly as phantasms do not deal damage instantly, which results in delayed burst compared to other builds and can lead to missed hits. There are no fixed opening rules for every single boss and group. Starting from the raid benchmark rotation, you will need to experiment what works best for different encounters and phase times.
The guiding principle is to get as many skill casts as possible into each phase, ideally casting your phantasm skills as early as possible. In that regard, on many fights where the boss spawns invisible or delayed, you can get an advantage by precasting AoE skills which do not require a target such as
, or . gives you the buff and hence should be used as soon as possible when playing with offhand sword. If you think the phase will end before your phantasms can finish their attacks, skip casting them and prioritise casting skills that instantly deal direct damage. If there is only time to cast one of two phantasm skills, skills which spawn multiple phantasms are better due to .
If you lose yourself in the rotation, follow this priority list:
- Cast your phantasms whenever ready.
- Use to recharge them all.
- Use with 5 Blades as much as possible. Only delay it for Exposed but remember that it also grants you a 5% damage buff through .
- Use and for damage and to keep up the buff from . Make sure to prioritize having 5 Blades for though. Situationally you can use this with 5 Blades such as in your burst rotation or when a phase is about to end and is on cooldown.
- deals damage over time so make sure to cast it at the start of phases. If a boss is close to phasing, save it for the start of the next phase.
- Use and , or and off cooldown (depending on your choice of weapons).
- is a DPS increase if you time it well, and don't interrupt other casts.
Remember that your personal damage skills are faster than phantasms. This means that direct damaging skills such as or and auto-attacks get higher priority if the boss is close to phasing.
Utilize for CC, but also remember to not use too much CC on the break bar and space out your big CC cooldowns like so they don't overlap with other powerful CC skills.
Apart from doing DPS, you'll also have access to a wide range of utilities which can all be used for skips, blocks, and damage mitigation. Make sure to read what they do and don't be afraid to swap to them situationally, especially in T4s.
Dark AI Reflect
Dark AI is Power Virtuoso's best boss as
can be used to reflect her attack, which spawns laser beams. Furthermore, if phased to 66% or 33% during her dash animation, the boss will send out additional laser beams which - if reflected - lead to a massive damage increase.
The Focused Wrath laser beams spawn in segments. A long dash contains 10 beams in a 4-2-4 sequence. With multiple reflect sources in the party, one person wants to reflect at the start of the dash and another person at the end. For example, in a composition containing a Scrapper using for reflects, the scrapper player should reflect the first beams, and a Mesmer player should use at the end of her dashes.
For most kill times, should be up for each dash. However, in speed kills, you will only have available at either 66% or 33%, not both. The highest possible reflect occurs at 33%, but it is a gamble if the attack pattern lines up correctly. On the other hand, with the correct group dps, it is possible to consistently obtain the big reflect at 66%.
You should make some adjustments to your build before starting the encounter. Most importantly, Sunqua Peak Challenge Mode is a night time fractal, meaning works and should be taken instead of . should be replaced with .
is also an optional utility skill that can be chosen, especially with multiple mesmer players, as it triggers , which will increase your reflect damage early on if you plan on phasing her before she completes the second dash. Reflect damage uses your ferocity and modifiers, but your enemies' power. To maximise your reflect damage you can use at the Mistlock Singularity to reset your first cast at the start of the fight.
As far as the general rotation is concerned, this fight is long enough to resemble a raid rotation. Make sure to help cc the adds if your groups is not prepared to skip them with sufficient dps and break the boss as late as possible. One add explosion can be tanked with Rigorous Certainty. Support players should take the tether at 33% in order to prevent damage reduction from Cacophonous Mind, but if no-one is willing to take it, it is still a group damage increase for you to grab it.
Dark AI Reflect Placement PoV
Precasting
At the Mistlock Singularity for better boons:
- Make sure to start a fight with 5 Blades by using .
- Use a high boon duration gearset to
- Blast existing fire fields with using a torch.
- Give might with using a shield.
- Use for more might from your rifle.
(Careful, it creates an Ethereal Combo Field) - Precast a for quickness.
- Extend your own boons with if you have time.
- Precast and take the singularity when your group is done pre-buffing.
At the boss (spawnable bosses) for damage:
- Cast . Skip this step if you did not use at the singularity.
- You can precast and to squeeze out a little more burst, if your group coordinates.
- Cast (again).
- Start casting if the boss starts with a break bar.
At the boss (pre-spawned bosses)
- You can also precast phantasms like .
Swapping gear or skills does not remove your boons. Hence, both using a precast skill template and a precast gearset with high boon duration are advised. Be careful that your skill templates use the same traits, as swapping traits does remove your boons.
Example Opener
- Precast and swap to your greatsword template.
- Precast (2x) by using at the Mistlock Singularity.
- Start on Spear.
- Proc with during your first cast.
- Weave in whenever possible.
- for Clarity and simultaneously
- to help break a breakbar
- for Clarity
- for Double Phantasms Damage
- Weapon Swap
- for big damage
- for big damage
- for big damage
- (careful, it interrupts other skills)
Add and after Step 6 to cast your phantasms twice if there is enough time before a boss phases, like on Siax or Enso. If a phase is too fast, you can replace with and add it into the opener.
Invisible bosses usually still take damage although the first second might not be logged properly in the arcdps addon. Use aoe skills which do not require a target during that time.
- Start on Dagger/Sword
- Precast and (2x)
- and as soon as the boss is targetable
- Proc with or otherwise with if you need CC.
- Weapon Swap
Weave in whenever possible. Add and to cast your phantasms twice if there is enough time before a boss phases.
If a boss spawns invisible such that it is not targetable instantly, use and early while waiting to be able to cast phantasms. Invisible bosses usually still take damage although the first second might not be logged properly in the arcdps addon.
Skorvald Precast and Opener Example in a Fast Pug
Skips
Traits for Skips
While we don't recommend leaving your party during boss fights (unless you are co-ordinating with the rest of your party), when dealing with sections of trash mobs, Mesmer has fantastic utility to speed these sections up, often allowing your party to ignore entire sections of some fractals, using Blinks, Stealth, and Superspeed. Some traits you will find useful for this are:
- - This will let you provide Superspeed to yourself and your party.
- - This will increase the duration of Stealth gained from skills such as and .
- Utilize Mirage for skips when moving across large distances or you need leaps! , and along with the typical Mesmer toolset make it really good for mobility and skips.
Mirage
Mesmer Skips Guide
Skip Skills
| For skipping sections of the fractal for your party. | |
| 1200 range blink, use it for skips! | |
| For stealthing your party for skips, can be combined with and for 18 seconds of stealth. | |
| 600 range leap, can be cancelled mid-air for slightly more range. | |
| 450 range blink, 3 charges. | |
| 1200-2400 (1500 activation) range targeted teleport. This skill is tricky because of its random nature but allows for some skips. |